


Our Hands

by Leni



Series: The Kindness of Strangers [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 01:43:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11453373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: His hands had never been comfortable in idleness.





	Our Hands

**Author's Note:**

> @white-throated-packrat prompted: handspindle

His hands had never been comfortable in idleness.

From boyhood on there had been work to do, more urgently so once Rumpelstiltskin became the only source of food and shelter in his little home.

The curse had ravaged at his soul, but it had known not to fight against a lifetime of habit and instead it had kept him busy for decades. The whispers of a dozen men and women who’d belonged to the dagger before him had continuously prodded him into mischief, always riding him toward this powerful item or that deliciously wicked deal. There had been ingredients to procure, spells to improve, and curses to craft - and always, always, there was the knowledge that his hands had betrayed him once, letting go of that most precious of boys, so they could not be allowed to rest for long ever again.

(They had betrayed him anyway. Reached for sweetness and kind smiles. Held onto that bright-eyed girl until it was too late to let her go as planned.)

Life after the Dark Curse was challenging in a thousand ways, with no magic to distract him from the terror of failing Baelfire again. As the first weeks passed, and with them the shock of the changes his foolishness had brought, he let himself fall back into habits older than the kingdoms he and Belle traversed on their search for a new home. The spinning wheel was forbidden to him, impossible to fit in their carriage; but the spindle was a familiar weight in his hands, twisting at the shaft and pulling the fiber with his other hand in an easy rhythm.

Curious Belle soon asked to be taught, and they laughed as it became apparent that the girl had a sharp mind, but unlike her focus in research, she became distracted and either loosened the newly twisted yarn, or spun the spindle in the wrong direction.

“Good thing we don’t depend on my skills,” she told him, giggling as she straightened the knotted mess she’d made, “or we’d starve within a month.”

She said it easily, a little joke from a girl whose worst circumstances had been a few nights in a dungeon. Rumpelstiltskin, however, remembered the dread of approaching winter, and cast the thin remnants of his magic to make sure that the spells guarding the treasures of the Dark Castle were still in place.

“Don’t worry about that, Belle.”

She turned to him, her grin faltering at his tone until she saw his expression and her eyes softened with understanding. “Oh, Rumple,” she told him feelingly, “of course I don’t!”

Her hand grasped onto his, squeezing with tenderness. She smiled at him, trust shining in her gaze, and Rumpelstiltskin had to smile back. Their hands remained twined together, and it was obvious to him that Belle took no notice of the ease with which their fingers now threaded together when, only weeks ago, he had often frozen at her touch.

A new habit, Rumpelstiltskin thought.

He hoped he would have a lifetime to get used to it.

 

The End  
08/07/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love!
> 
> *points at comment box*


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